DULUTH, Ga. — Baptist state convention presidents were called together March 19 to discuss the health of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) with the president of the SBC.

The meeting, held at the Georgia Baptist Missions and Ministry Center in Duluth, Ga., drew 26 of the state convention presidents, including Rick Speas, president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

The convocation was the brainchild of Georgia Baptist Convention president Bucky Kennedy as a forum to determine how the national convention could position itself for revival and a “Great Commission resurgence” in the days ahead.

“I want us to build stronger relationship within our denomination and bring the younger generation along as we work and witness together,” said SBC president Johnny Hunt.

Speas, pastor of Old Town Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, said the convention presidents want to see a fresh movement of God’s Spirit in the SBC and the nation.

“The desire in our hearts was pretty much the same — praying that God will move among His people again,” Speas said.

The presidents discussed how to maintain biblical Christianity in a secular world, Speas said.

“There was good conversation around the table about where we are as Southern Baptists,” he said.

Kennedy said state convention presidents would love to see a new enthusiasm for the gospel mission across the SBC.

“Those presidents of the various state conventions are very much aware of where we are as a denomination,” Kennedy said. “They long to see a spiritual awakening in our convention and nation. They also have a desire to see us engage in an aggressive church planting movement.”

The state presidents were “in one accord,” Hunt said.

“I did not hear any kind of disagreement expressed. The presidents from both of the Texas conventions were present and sat together,” he said. “To me that was symbolic of the kind of harmony and togetherness we can experience as a denomination.”

The Cooperative Program, the SBC’s unified budget, also became a part of the discussion. While a strong commitment to the Cooperative Program was apparent among the men at the Duluth gathering, they also agreed the Cooperative Program should not be a requirement of fellowship or a litmus test for serving in the denomination.

Hunt asked: “How do we measure faithfulness to the Convention? Is giving 10 percent to the CP worthy of a badge of honor? Is giving less than 10 percent to the CP deserving of a badge of dishonor? I think we need to celebrate those churches that are growing and headed in the right direction.

“A church that is declining in numbers and giving, but committed to giving 10 percent of its undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program, is headed in the wrong direction and will be giving less even though their percentage of giving is strong,” Hunt said. “But a church that gives only 3 percent, but is growing in numbers and giving — buying land, constructing buildings and adding staff — will consistently be increasing their dollar amount to the CP.”

At the same time, giving 10 percent of all undesignated gifts to the Cooperative Program “should not necessarily be the ceiling,” Kennedy said.

This must be a REAL April Fool's joke of the saddest kind!! Those who want to seek a new movement of God in the SBC should look around and realize that YEARS, if not DECADES, ago they themselves ushered God and Jesus out of the SBC when they moved to put their trust in the "infallible and inerrant" Bible instead of the Son of God who gave his life for us. They themselves removed Jesus as the norm and criterion for our faith and wrote a new rag called the Baptist Faith and Message of 2000. They also ushered out any free thinking Christians who happened to be true Southern Baptists. This was all done because of the need to purge the denomination of the "liberals." Well, now 20 plus years later, what do we have? We have a denomination which has become an embarassment and is just a shell of what it used to be. Perhaps Jesus evaluation of the Pharisses would be apt and fit in here when He called them like the tombs which were whitewashed on the outside to look beautiful, while on the inside they are full of dead men's bones. (Matthew 23:27-28) I am quite glad to be out of the SBC and I thank you for showing me the door and causing me to see even more dillegently the Kingdom of God and not the Kingdom of Patterson, Pressler, Rodgers, Criswell, Stanley, Draper, Chapman, Hunt and etc.

ABOUT THE BIBLICAL RECORDER
Since 1833 the Biblical Recorder has served North Carolina Baptists as the Baptist State Convention's official news journal - with the emphasis on news. The paper was founded by Thomas Meredith, an early pastor, writer and denominational statesman in North Carolina.